Frederick M. Hess and Max Eden bring together a cross-section of respected academics and journalists to examine key aspects of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The Chapters appear on the table of contents as follows: (1) From ESEA to NCLB: The Growth of the Federal Role and the Shift to Accountability (Patrick McGuinn); (2) From NCLB to…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) presents US educators and local and state legislators with a rare opportunity: to reconceive schooling and education funding to better address students' needs. Richard DuFour, Douglas Reeves, and Rebecca DuFour showcase how to make the most of this opportunity by fully committing to the Professional Learning…

Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane have gathered a diverse group of scholars to examine the shifting federal role in education across the presidential administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. While the administrations were vastly different, one thing remained constant: an ongoing and significant expansion of the federal role in…

April 2015 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the landmark legislation that has provided the foundation of federal education policy in the United States. In "Presidents, Congress, and the Public Schools," longtime policy analyst Jack Jennings examines the evolution of federal education…

In a context where schools are held more and more accountable for the education they provide, data-based decision making has become increasingly important. This book brings together scholars from several countries to examine data-based decision making. Data-based decision making in this book refers to making decisions based on a broad range of…

As the Obama Administration wrestles with the impending reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the continuing need for education reform, Eugene Hickok provides an insider's account of this historic legislation. A former key player in the Department of Education during the Bush administration, Hickok describes how Bush's education…

During the last 20 years, the United States has experienced more attempts at education reform than at any other time in its history. Efforts to reform financing, the assessment of student performance, accountability and equity, and school choice have all been implemented--with varying levels of success. Michael F. Addonizio and C. Philip Kearney…

In recent years there have been increasing efforts to use accountability systems based on large-scale tests of students as a mechanism for improving student achievement. The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a prominent example of such an effort, but it is only the continuation of a steady trend toward greater test-based accountability in…

In her new book, Betty Demarest describes a bold agenda for education reform--one that is firmly grounded in a synthesis of educational research about learning, teaching, and the contexts of education. The author's "learning-centered" framework includes: (1) a broad and balanced set of education goals, (2) a multi-faceted concept of…

The No Child Left Behind Act declared that improving education in every school in the United States was a top national priority. However, this act did not acknowledge how state departments of education have successfully constructed reforms for the past few decades, despite the power struggle between governors, legislators, school districts, and…

As a consequence of the federal "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) law, there is tremendous pressure on school principals, teachers, school superintendents, district staff, state departments of education and governors to maximize the increase in student achievement that is obtained with every dollar of expenditure. Currently, teachers are…

Education has rarely been absent from local and national public discourse. Throughout the history of modern education spanning more than a century, individuals have as a culture lamented the failures of public schooling, often making such claims based on assumptions instead of any nuanced consideration of the many influences on teaching and…

Three years after U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling's national commission on higher education, and nearly a decade after No Child Left Behind revolutionized k-12 accountability, there is little agreement on what accountability in higher education should look like. While more students are enrolling in (and failing to complete)…

Recent educational reforms have promoted accountability systems which attempt to identify "teacher effects" on student outcomes and hold teachers accountable for producing learning gains. But in the complex world of classrooms, it may be difficult to attribute "success" or "failure" to teachers. In this timely…

This is the second book in a series entitled "P-16: The Last Education Reform." It was the purpose of the authors to chronicle the growth of existing state and local P-16 councils and compacts across the United States and to look at what might constitute successful efforts and an ideal relationship between state and local efforts. The…